Sunday, January 25, 2009

For as long as the trees have lived beside the hydro line in front of the house, some sensible thinking chap on the trimming crew has always brushed them back about two or three feet back of the vertical plane of the lines, and kept the line of six trees looking absolutely fabulous. Three years ago, this was done, except this time, someone punched a hole the size of a small car in the draping canopy of the first of six trees to accommodate the 240 V line from the pole to our neighbors house.

I called Erie Thames, and the next day a supervisor came around to inspect the work. He agreed that the cutting around the line to the neighbors, although legitimately required, was somewhat excessive and not really necessary. He further agreed that Erie Thames would contact me before any trimming in the future, especially if any significant cutting back was required.

Well, this time around, it seems Hydro has subcontracted a lot of work, if not all of it, and the cutters arrived, promptly shearing off virtually all the branches of one tree facing the power lines, and most of two of the others. As soon as I found out the extent of the hatchet job, I talked to the crew chief, and suggested he stop the brushing until he had a supervisor contact me about the work being performed. He complied, noting that I was just a little bit pissed, and moved on down the street. A supervisor from the line cutting department called me back (on Friday) and told me he would drop by personally to inspect on Monday....

Saturday, January 24, 2009

As mentioned in an earlier post on my Tavistock Treehouse blog, the Field House is fronted by what I consider a row of six absolutely remarkable trees. They are all Norway Spruce, identical in age, roughly 75 years old, and each similar in size and shape. They are fairly large, between 50 and 70 feet tall, with foliage cover at least 20' away from each trunk. They have branches that sweep downward and outward, with needles arranged in drooping, hanging combs. All of them have actually been topped (had the main leader cut off) for some reason fairly early in their lives, but since nothing will stop a tree from growing toward the sun, each tree had put out anywhere from two to five new leaders after being cut back. The result now are trees with one mammoth main trunk, that splits into two, three, or up to even five secondary trunks at varying heights above the groud. These multiple trunks, combined with the draping needles, and the numerous died off branches close to the trunks create a magnificently gothic, dark and foreboding appearance.

Now we can get to the Erie Thames Power Corporation, our local Hydroelectric utility, and the wonderful consequences of subcontracting work to companies and personnel with at the very least seemingly little experience, or a remarkable inability to actually use the brains given to them by God...

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Our adventures living in an historic Victorian era Italianate home. Not so much a family blog, but more a series of anecdotes and stories about our nice little (well not really little) house, and our relation to it. If you ever enjoyed "This Olde House", or have an opinion on "Holmes on Homes", and can tolerate my sense of humour, visit as often as you like!